summer' 76, and what happened next
by calamitycatz
Summary: sorry about the title, i was trying to be artsy, this is a marauders fan fiction (my first one!) and i hope you like it :)
1. Chapter 1

When Lily Evans turned 11, everything changed. The letter arrived, for one thing. But even bigger than the letter was the loss of her sister, although, Lily supposed; the two were inextricably linked. She didn't really believe it at first, she'd always secretly thought Sev was making it all up. She'd played along with it, just to keep Severus happy. Also partly to annoy Petunia, not that she'd ever thought it would drive such a wedge between them.

'You're a freak! A horrible, snivelling little freak!' Petunia's shrieks could shatter bones and turn them dust. Not literally, because unlike Lily, Petunia was normal.

Hot salty tears stung Lily's eyes, and a couple slid town her freckled cheeks, much to her embarrassment. She wanted to spit back something vile and cutting, but her mind was like sludge. All she could register was the cruel words being flung at her from her sister, her other half. Petunia and Lily had never been best of friends, but they had always been sisters at the very least. They didn't even feel like that anymore, and a malicious voice in Lily's head told her that they never would again.

The letter marked the beginning of a new era, and the end of an old one. The day it arrived, it was raining, and Lily Evans was standing outside, frantically trying to call her cat down from the apple tree in their back garden. Her voice was lost in the wind, and the cat barely noticed she was there. Her mother opened the back window to screech at her, 'Lily! Come Inside"

Lily had turned around in surprise, and squinted through the grey, trying to catch what her mother was saying. She walked through the back door soaked to the bone, and looked up at her mother, whose expression was flickering between disapproval and amusement.

'There's a letter for you' her mother had said 'I think you'll want to open this one'

Petunia had been so angry when she'd found out, so angry that she had screamed and cried for days, and refused to talk to anyone except their mother. Petunia could be like that sometimes. She was a dangerous hybrid of stubborn and petty, that didn't bode well for Lily.

Still, Lily had told herself, Tuney would've gotten over the whole thing by the end of first term, at the latest. By then things would've gotten back to normal. Petunia's face had been been the colour of beetroot as her and her smiling parents had waved goodbye from platform 9 and 3/4s, but even tuney couldn't hold a grudge for that long.


	2. The Day Before

August 31st, 1976

The summer ran late that year. It was the end of August, and still baking hot; no trace of autumn anywhere. The air thrummed, alive, and buzzing with midges. Days like these always dragged on, seemingly never ending. If Lily had to listen to bloody Vernon Dursley tell her about his 'financial prospects' in the drill business one more time, she would sock him one. Petunia hadn't yet told her latest boyfriend about Lily's 'condition', as she so delicately referred to it , and Lily knew that once _that_ cat was out of the bag, Vernon would stop making such a desperate attempt to gain her approval. Honestly, what kind of a name was ' _Vernon_ ' anyway? It seemed to suit him though; the great lummox was currently sitting at a little round table, eating scones with Lily's parents and telling them all about his 'honourable' intentions. He truly was insufferable, with his detestable moustache of sorts, and sweaty forehead. His voice droned on and on, and Lily found herself humming to herself to try and block it out.

" _Lily"_ her mother hissed

She jerked upright realising how rude she had been, but not really minding at all. God, she had to get out before she died of boredom.

"I've just remembered some last minute homework I've got to do, can I be excused?"

That seemed like a perfectly reasonable excuse to Lily, and she just hoped she had been convincing enough that her mother would allow it. Mrs Margaret Evans was a fair woman, who understood Lily's sentiment. If she could only make an excuse for herself as well, she wouldn't have to listen to this mans pointless drivel any longer. Unfortunately it was her duty to support her eldest daughter, no matter how agonising it was.

"The day before you go back to school? Really Lily, if you must." Her tone of voice implied that she was less than pleased, but there was a familiar twinkle in her eye, that informed Lily that her mother understood. Relieved, Lily fled the stuffy living room for the cool, drafty corridor. Why her sister felt the need to turn on the heating on a day like this, she had no idea. She ran up the stairs, flung open her bedroom door and collapsed on her bed. All she wanted was for this day to be over, so she could get back to Hogwarts. She missed her dormitory, and the girls she shared it with. Sure, her and Sylvia Nott didn't always see eye to eye – why that girl had been sorted into Gryffindor, Lily had no idea – but Marlene Price and Mary Macdonald were two of her best friends, and the summer had been awful with both of them out of the country on respective holidays. The only other person Lily genuinely missed was Remus Lupin. The two of them had been named Gryffindor prefects, and he was the only person who could truly understand her work ethic without competing with it. He was also the only one of those bloody Marauders that she liked in the slightest. Peter Pettigrew was sweet, but rather annoying, Sirius Black was always causing trouble for her, and James Potter was all round infuriating. Although, she had to give it to him, he stood up for what was right, even when he wasn't needed.

That took her back to Severus. They hadn't spoken all summer, despite bumping into each other three times. God, what was she going to do tomorrow when she saw him on the Hogwarts express. He had called her a _mudblood_ , of all things, and then after they had fought he had gone running back to Mulciber and Avery, who everyone knew were practically death eaters in their own right. Things were changing, she knew that, but had never really expected to find herself on the opposite side of Sev. Still, he was nothing to her now. Potter had been right about him all along, he truly was a slimy git.

Lily let out a long sigh, and gazed out her window. Where the sky had been a bright, blazing blue not 15 minutes earlier, it was now fading into a milky purple haze, signalling that the day was one step closer to being over. Time always goes slow when you don't want it to, because as Lily would find out, Time was just as fickle a concept as love.


End file.
